Boxer to undergo sex change

[jessicamoore]

why do older men wait till late in life and want a sex change? what about hormone treatment, living as a women for a year just to make sure. he is really a mascniline looking guy and big it would never work.

[phobun]

this sounds like a typical trash tabloid story, but more fitting for the World Weekly News or something.

How does a reporter from the Sun even find out about this? It is not as if some nobody-boxer holds a press conference anyone attends.

"After becoming Mercedes, Newbiggin said, he hopes to have a future in modeling, painting and interior design."

The whole thing sounds contrived.

[SarahG]

How does a reporter from the Sun even find out about this? .

Considering that they run a trans article like this about once a month, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a whole department whose job is to wander around the UK trans support groups trying to find the strangest, most absurd cases they can think of so that they can write sensationalized, wacky trash stories about it.

Alternatively they may have a million monkeys with typewriters locked away in a warehouse somewhere...

[Justawannabe]

Nowhere -

Having success stories of early transitions is important, but to imply that it is in any way the norm of what trans folks go through is doing a tremendous wrong to the group as a whole and just strengthens the case against late transitioners.

The reason it doesn't get addressed early is not just a matter of medical awareness but religious and social conditioning. It will be generations, at least, before you see the last of the late transitioning folks. Those people have just as little choice as the kids in the end, and need as much pr done in a sensitive light as the kids.

Or is your position that once you hit a certain age/jaw size you should no longer qualify for medical/social support? That if you live for some period in denial of your condition that you should be stuck that way or only pitied and looked down on rather than understood by having your story put out there to give others like you hope?

SarahG -

Actually, what I hear on this board and in person a lot of the time is precisely the opposite. The folks I've talked to on the conservation side of the fence see transsexuality among the young the way they see bi-sexuality among the young, a phase that should not be supported with damaging medical intervention and social support.

They see folks who try their hardest to fit into society but fail as a more sympathetic case. These people are giving up a lifetimes gains, so the drive must be beyond normal endurance, a medical condition. It's not seen as a snap decision in the articles, though it often is by those who know the person.

Going by a headline is misleading, almost all boil things down in innappropriate ways.

I agree that the article has flaws, but the comments on this thread were not based on the poor writing and lack of in depth description of the life long struggle, they were based on the 'ewww' factor. That a big beefy guy is going to try to transition, and not make an appealing woman.

I read the article as well, and in no case did it imply this was a sudden whim. It implied he did his best to live as his adopted father taught him to live but that he just couldn't do it anymore and was lucky enough to have a supportive partner.

And I agree, the pronouns are still he, like I have used here, because s/he didn't seem to have chosen to change hir status yet. That may be because of the rules in his/her area, but I don't presume to apply new pronouns without a clear indication what the person wants at this point. Which of the many should we stick on a this person not knowing their choice?

The 'intersexed' issue is not talked about, true, but it is a short piece, and refers to a childhood condition. That is a whole separate kettle of fish here, and would take a complete article in and of itself. It should happen, but I can certainly see where it might be cut for space.

As to the stereotyping, sadly that is a reality in many cases of a person trying to transition late or early.

As I said above, this article does have issues, lots of them, but one of them is not that this is a late transitioner coming out of a masculine field unlikely to make a traditionally attractive woman. Right now at least, a large number of such folks are out there walking the streets and trying not to be attacked for who they feel they must be, how else do we raise awareness that these people have a medical condition that needs treatment if we don't put there in the media?

With no media profile, every time one of these folks does come out about their transition it will be seen as a sudden and willful action on their part. Much like depression was, and still is for a lot of people, seen as choice to be lazy. The story needs to be front and center for a lot of folks to understand that transsexual folks most often try to fit in first, and it is only after they find that they can't do they pursue medical help.

Much like a lot of gay men who have wives and kids are reviled for lying about their real identities, trans folks are part of a larger issue. Society tries to guilt shame and threaten folks into being mainstream average joes. So if you are different, just like a torture victim, you do everything possible to please your attacker, or live up to the expectations of your parents or hide your 'deformity' so the mob doesn't turn on you... no matter how much it hurts, because the alternative is unthinkable.

That is until you break, you can't fight anymore and the truth of who you are comes out. Then instead of seeing you as someone who gave his all to be what was expected, we as a society turn on the person even more and revile them as liars, never acknowledging that we coerce them into lying to save their sanity life or sense of salvation.

Tell the real story of who the tribe is, all the members, in as many outlets as possible if you want folks to understand. Try to whitewash them with just the success stories and you get the ugly ducklings of the tribe attacked even harder because they didn't do it right.

sean

[bte]

Good luck on his journey. Hope he has a lot of money because I don't think he will be passable.

[alyssats]

why do older men wait till late in life and want a sex change? what about hormone treatment, living as a women for a year just to make sure. he is really a mascniline looking guy and big it would never work.

This is also what im thinking. Ive noticed most TS/TV in Europe and US mostly have sex change late in their life(40,45,50,55,60 yrs old) while in Asia usually around early to late 20's. Why is it like that in western culture?

[phobun]

This is also what im thinking. Ive noticed most TS/TV in Europe and US mostly have sex change late in their life(40,45,50,55,60 yrs old) while in Asia usually around early to late 20's. Why is it like that in western culture?

Probably the main reasons relate to cultural and religious factors that discourage transgender feelings and behavior

A minority of those who had their sex change later worked for years as shemale prostitutes and enjoyed using their male anatomy on submissive Johns. But near-geriatric shemales aren't exactly in demand, so they sometimes reinvent themselves as the women they claim they always were.

[Justawannabe]

phobun hit on the head.

Economics also plays a part. Some folks know they are going to transitions 'as soon as they are settled'. The idea there is wait until you have all the money you need for ALL your expected medical procedures in the bank before you risk your ability to make money in a mainstream job.

side note - reread the article after getting some sleep... and I was wrong about one thing. It seems from the article he had support from family but not friends.

[alyssats]

I see but if they transition or sex change late in their life most of them will just look like a mother or granny already sorry no offense. Whats the point of that or their transitioning? Why not transition while youre still young and fresh and will look like a sexy college girl or sexy lady?

[SarahG]

It will be generations, at least, before you see the last of the late transitioning folks.

I don't ever see late transitioners going away completely, there are always going to be people who somehow manage to throw themselves into denial long enough to be transitioning after (picking a # at random) 45.

BUT, you can already see that people are transitioning earlier than what used to be normal- its generational thing more than anything else. The amount of people who are transitioning in their late teens-20s is incomparable to just the early 90s, to say nothing of the 80s, 70s, 60s, and so on.

I've been in multiple trans support forums where they polled the user base of age of starting to transition and there were clearly two bell curves- one for the late transitioners, another for the ones in their early to mid 20s.

Or is your position that once you hit a certain age/jaw size you should no longer qualify for medical/social support?

Once again, no one here has said that. I think its pretty simple, if someone is at a crisis state of "transition or die" [at any age], transitioning is the obvious treatment choice to go with. I believe that it would be painfully obvious that limiting transition access for older transitioners would only lead to more suicides, more self destructive behavior, more substance abuse, and more psychological damage then is already being exhibited in the community as we speak.

SarahG
Actually, what I hear on this board and in person a lot of the time is precisely the opposite. The folks I've talked to on the conservation side of the fence see transsexuality among the young the way they see bi-sexuality among the young, a phase that should not be supported with damaging medical intervention and social support.

None of my posts in this thread are talking about child-transitioners. My beef is with the article, the publication that wrote it, and the idiot reporter who thought it could be passed off as journalism.

They see folks who try their hardest to fit into society but fail as a more sympathetic case.

Well sure, that should be obvious. Its kinda hard to be the "most sympathetic case" when you've waited decades, had a long successful career, and have the funds to simply "go on holiday to get SRS in thailand over the weekend" especially when so many young trans people are thrown out on the streets by their intolerant families, with no place to go, no education to fall back on, and no assets that can be liquidated to support them.

...but its not about "what's more sympathetic." I almost NEVER see a newspaper article talk about the plight of young trans people rejected by their families. The newspapers could care less about whose more sympathetic, or which groups the general public would be most sympathetic towards. All they care about is distorting trans issues, sensationalizing stories, and finding the most unbelievable stories- just like this one- to sell to readers who eat it up as a comedy piece.

That a big beefy guy is going to try to transition, and not make an appealing woman.

Which is pretty relevant from the article. Hell, the article went so far as to say she plans to go into modeling.

Modeling!? GG's don't get into modeling at that age. The whole thing paints her up to be a clueless, mentally ill person out of touch with reality who thinks they can go away for a weekend, become someone else, and that the results would be enough for her to enter into the field of modeling no less...